The Social Agenda

Do Social networks really work?

Yesterday while talking to my boss (BTW he is the only one I still consider to be my boss, apart from my wife, as he is the only one I listened to at work ;)), he came up with an interesting idea. People have not changed since centuries. They have always been drifting apart. From whole villages living in one cave to rising divorce rates, we have come a long way from social living. People are becoming more and more individualistic.

Now, back to the main topic. Do social networks work? For the past decade, we have seen numerous social networks coming and then fizzling out. MySpace, Friendster, Orkut and now Facebook. All have seen the same story. People get excited when they are launched. Call all their friends to join them. They form groups and communities. They chat all night long. But then after that what? They move on to the next big thing... Twitter.

For the fear of being called a hypocrite, I would like to admit that I have also been a part of all the bandwagons. Be it Orkut, MySpace, Blogs, Facebook or Twitter. You can find my profiles on all of them. But then I become bored like the rest of you and move on.

There are three things and only three things that really sell in this world. Sex, knowledge and food. That is why you see all the Porn sites being so popular and Google making tonnes of money. Online economies around these three will always remain popular and viable. The rest as they say will become history.

BTW with the much hyped IPOs of all the SNSes, I seriously feel there is another dot com burst brewing. So cash in your stocks and come back to the real world!!

Comic Con India 2011

Being a ardent fan of Indian Comic books, I was super excited when I heard about Comic Con India 2011. The venue (Delhi Haat) and day (Saturday and Sunday) were also convenient to fit in my busy schedule (;)). All I needed to do was to convince Biwi to let me go! When I asked her, she was surprisingly supportive and decided to tag along.

As an aside, either she had finally submitted herself to my idiosyncrasies or she was afraid of letting me go alone to Delhi Haat (what with all the hot Dilli ki Kudian roaming around there). I would personally like to believe the second as I feel I am handsome enough but as you know... Naari ke man ko to swyam Vishnu bhi nahi samajh paye.

Anyways, coming back to the Comic Con, I was not-disappointed-but-not-very-happy-either when I reached there. One of my major reasons of going there was to buy some old editions of Raj Comics offerings. However, Raj Comics was only conspicuous by its absence. I am not sure why. Either they didn't consider it a grand enough stage or the newer kids on the block were trying to gang up against the Grand Old Daddy of the Indian Comic book industry.

All I saw there were foreign publishers trying to be Indian enough and selling expensive comic books. The Indian bastion was held only by Amar Chitra Katha and Diamond comics.

I know its a dying industry in India but I would have loved to see the marginal publishers showcasing there wares there. We need more of our indigenous super heroes and not the Supermans and Spidermans. Its high time now someone from the Indian film industry to take up this cause.

2011: Happy New Year!!

As we grow old, New Year becomes just another day.

When I was a kid I used to think... why aren't Maa n' Papa excited about the New Year? Why don't they go out and celebrate? Why do they stay back at home as if it was a no big deal? After all, it used to be such a BIG deal for us kids.

But this year I did the same... stayed back at home. No parties. No outings. And we didn't even know it was a brand new year before we were fifteen minutes into 2011.

Looks like my priorities have changed... and I hope they have changed for good. Ushering in a new year 2011... Three Cheers for the year gone by!!